


Titles

by nonbineri



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Other, Red Romance, genderfluid eridan, some in chap three but in a hypothetical sense, some misgendering that is corrected in chap one, transtuck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-05
Updated: 2014-04-24
Packaged: 2018-01-14 16:43:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1273663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonbineri/pseuds/nonbineri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prince is a boy-only class, and Eridan isn't a boy. Sollux goes above and beyond fixing the error for their genderfluid friend, including (but not limited to), hacking trollian, editing the game, and kissing them.</p>
<p>Red Erisol. Misgendering that is corrected in some chapters. Fairly short chapters that update frequently.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In which Eridan comes out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jehancourf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jehancourf/gifts).



> I wrote these to erisolsies when they were having a bad day:
> 
> "think about eridan getting upset that prince was called a male only title and confronting sollux about it. imagine sollux staying up late that night to edit the game so it goes to prince/princess/princex/whatever eridan wants. imagine sollux sitting outside eridans door waiting for them to wake up so sollux can gush about the new feature and how it molds to eridan so it matches their gender identity at all times. sollux captor is a big nerd but eridan loves them and they kiss later."
> 
> "solluc hacking trollian so it is IMPOSSIBLE TO MISGENDER ERIDAN. the cynical sarcastic sollux refuses to trust other people to do it so eridan has to click a pronoun when they log in and then everytime someone uses something else it automatically changes it to the correct one. sollux refusing to place the mindset of his perf matesprit in other peoples hands. better to leave it to computers. rules out troll error, right?"
> 
> And this fic was born.

"Captor, open up!"

Sollux groaned and tilted his head back, rubbing his temples as he weighed the benefits of leaving Eridan to shout and bang on the door. The yellowblood eventually decided to open it, and unlocked the door to a chorus of, “I know you’re in there!”

"God, fins, what?!" The words came out sharper than he meant, especially with how Eridan looked. If Sollux had to put a name on it, he’d say it was combination nervousness and righteous anger.

That was a new expression. It was usually combination disgust and anger.

"I need to speak with you."

Sollux found himself rudely pushed to the side as Eridan walked into his block, stepping around some garbage and gamegrubs as the nerd gaped at them. “Gills, what the hell do you want now? It’s entierly too fucking early to duel with you, can’t you go play with your wands for another hour or two-“

"Firstly, it’s not even early. It’s one. Secondly, I’m not here to duel you." Eridan turned around, staring him down, arms crossed like they expected an argument. "I need you to do something."

"…" Sollux grinned, pushing his glasses down his nose to stare at the petite troll in front of him. "You need my help? The great Eridan Ampora needs my help? The prince of hope, the-"

"That’s exactly why I’m here, Sparky. You fucked up the game."

Now that was just a rude and absolutely unforgivable accusation in Sollux’s mind.

"What?! I did not! I spent forever on this fucking game making sure it could match all personalities accurately and provide a-"

"My title’s wrong!"

"Scales, if this is about you being a destroyer of hope, I don’t know what to tell you besides suck it the fuck up-"

"I don’t care about that!" Eridan shouted before shutting their eyes and sighing. "I just don’t like what it’s called."

"What?" Heterochomatic eyes were blinked. "What, prince or hope?"

"Prince! I don’t think it should be so… limited!" Eridan flung their hands up, waving them to try and articulate as Sollux watched in confusion and amusement. "Like, what, a girl can’t be a destroyer of hope?"

"Yeah. Pretty much." He shrugged. "That’s how it works. If you’re a prince of hope, you’re a boy." Eridan shook their head as he finished and tried to shove past the lanky troll in front of them. "Wait, ED, hold on, what’s the big deal? Why do you care if girls can’t be your title?"

"Shut up and get out of my way, I regret ever coming here, you _insensitive fucking_ \- HEY!” Eridan shouted as they were flipped upside down, red and blue sparks around their ankles as they thrashed and fought. “You gross fucking landweller, put me down or I swear to fuck I’ll rip your brain out and dissect it!”

"Just fucking tell me why you’re so ticked, jesus fucking christ!" He shouted back.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Two is enough, Eridan, just fucking tell me!" He tossed Eridan’s body onto the couch, the seadweller pouting as they bounced on the less-than-fluffy sofa.

"… If you do anything I expect from your rude ass, I will kill you and feel no regrets." Eridan warned him, sitting up and crossing their legs.

"Like you could." Sollux scoffed, relaxing in his computer chair and facing them.

"I could and will, Captor, fucking test me-"

"Whatever you like, gills, now spill."

"I… I don’t always feel like a boy?" Eridan tugged at the scarf, glancing up through their eyelashes to see Sollux’s expression, getting nothing but a passive stare from the lowblood and continuing. "Like, it changes, and sometimes I do feel like I’m a boy, but other times I feel like a… girl…" One more glance, and still no reaction from Captor. "… And, sometimes I don’t really feel like either?"

"…"

"Genderfluid, is what it’s called, and I just really really really hate how Prince is a strictly boy class when I am not strictly a boy."

"… So, you want me to change prince to… what?"

"I mean, sometimes I like prince, but other times I want princess, and other times prinxe…"

"How do you spell that last one?"

Eridan peeked up as Sollux swiveled around in the chair, clicking away the screensaver of various game characters climbing up a honeycomb and pulling up the game file. “P-R-I-N-X-E.” They spelled out. “Are you just going to always make it that one, or…?”

"I got it, ED." Sollux waved a hand absently, Eridan taking it as a signal to leave.

They grinned as they shut and locked the door behind them, biting into the scarf to muffle a shriek of happiness.

This had gone better than they ever expected.


	2. In which Sollux works his ass off.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sollux works on fixing the game for Eridan. Eridan uses adorable aquatic pronouns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is very little Eridan/Sollux interaction. Brief appearance of Karkat.

_\- moving between genders or with a fluctuating gender identity (genderfluid)_

That was what trollkipedia had to say on the subject, but it wasn’t enough. He didn’t know enough about Eridan. He figured the occasional spying and reading of pesterlogs had givin him tons of information on the fishy troll, but now there was a whole new aspect of Eridan’s identity that he didn’t know anything about. And he intended to fix that.

The whole night and following day were spent solely for gathering information; He checked blogs, browsed through what the internet had to say about it, looked up articles and people that identified as genderfluid to read about them.

By the time the sun rose for the second time since he started, he felt like he had a decent enough understanding of Eridan’s gender to be able to reprogram that section of the game. He went to work. This wasn’t an inconvenience, no, it was a challenge. Something new to do. Something that would give him a good time and make Eridan more comfortable and basically result in less animosity all around.

Eridan was too damn cute to fight with so much, and Sollux knew they would be even cuter once they could call themself the correct title. Eridan’s blood color was pretty, but he was getting damn sick of seeing the blood outside their body. Fighting less sounded good.

Now onto the game.

He quickly looked at the titles, substituting Prince of [Time][Space][Void][Light][Mind][Heart][Rage][Hope][Doom][Life][Blood][Breath] for [Prince][Princess][Prinxe] of [Time][Space][Void][Light][Mind][Heart][Rage][Hope][Doom][Life][Blood][Breath] and saving it without applying it to the world. He moved onto the code that selected the title and aspect of each player, repeating the [Prince][Princess][Prinxe] switch and saving it the same way. Sollux then buckled down and got to work on the hardest part, writing the code that would display the correct title at all times. Sollux already had a basic code for finding out people’s thoughts and actions and personality, he just needed to modify it for gender instead. After a few hours of trial and error, he eventually hit the right combination and grinned. Eridan would get to have their royal title be whatever they felt like then, no need to select or reload if they changed what they wanted.

Why stop there? His energy drink saturated brain asked. He could do more. Why not? No reason.

He yanked the keyboard closer and adjusted his butt on the chair, settling in for another session of hacking and coding and fixing. For Eridan.

He only had to apply the same gender-checking script to trollian, modify it for pronouns, and put in a simple substitution code for his next project: Making it impossible to use trollian and misgender Eridan.

twinArmageddons [TA] began trolling  caligulasAquarium [CA]  
TA: hey ED. ii need your pronoun2.

Five minutes passed.

TA: ED. ii need the pronoun2 now let’2 go make wiith the term2 of addre22.

Ten minutes from the first message.

TA: eriidan ampora what the fuck ii need you two tell me.  
CA: shut the fuck up sol i wwas asleep an wwould like to RETURN to that state  
CA: if you dont leavve me alone im blockin you until i wwake up  
TA: lmfao ED haven’t you learned that ii can hack through your 2tupiid block.  
TA: ii just need your pronoun2 for when you’re a priince 2la2h prince22 2la2h priinxe.  
CA: oh  
CA: wwell for prince an princess he or she an for prinxe they  
CA: but also  
CA: nevvermind just he she they  
TA: no tell me.  
CA: wwell you knoww howw some people use pronouns that are like   
CA: based off of stuff  
TA: you lo2t me.  
CA: some people havve like themed pronouns that are real cute an like  
CA: some people dont think theyre real but i like em  
CA: some of em  
TA: whiich 2ome.

Eridan gently slid their teeth across their lip, chewing gently at the black skin. This was Sollux, they reminded themself, and there was a chance it was all a big joke.

They really, really hoped not though.

CA: like mer mers merself  
CA: gill gills gillself  
CA: fin fins finself  
CA: kelp kelps kelpself  
CA: sea sear searself  
TA: 2o when do you u2e each of the2e?  
CA: depends on wwhat im feelin i guess  
TA: perfect.  
twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling caligulasAquarium [CA]  
CA: wwait sol  
CA: ugh nevvermind  
CA: if this is dissapointin ill kill you  
caligulasAquarium [CA] ceased trolling twinArmageddons [TA]

Sollux went to work, putting in the substitution code to switch to whatever pronoun Eridan preffered at that moment, and applied it to the chat client, then messaged Karkat.

twinArmageddons [TA] began trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]  
TA: hey KK.  
TA: tell me about eriidan.  
CG: WHAT? IT’S ERIDAN, YOU KNOW ERIDAN. SEADWELLER, PURPLE STREAK, CAPABLE OF THE MOST HEADACHE INDUCING RANTS KNOW TO TROLLKIND? CAN’T SHUT UP? MER PLANET HAS A BUNCH OF CREEPY-ASS ANGEL THINGS THAT MER CANNOT. STOP. KILLING.  
CG: ANY OF THIS RINGING A BELL?  
TA: ehehehe. KK have ii told you recently that ii am a goddamn GENIIU2.  
twinArmageddons [TA]  ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

Sollux carefully saved all his changes and applied them, checking the title and aspect IDs for everyone and grinning at what he saw.

_Eridan Ampora: Prinxe of Hope_


	3. In which Sollux shows off.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sollux explains the changes to Eridan. Romance. Mentions of misgendering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to update this every day, though I make no promises.

Soon after, Eridan found themself unable to open their door.

The frowned, turning the knob all the way and pushing firmly, listing to something slide across the floor a few inches as their door opened a crack.

Someone was trying to block them in.

The seadweller snarled and kicked the door as hard as they could, the swinging piece of wood flying open and whatever had been blocking the door flying into the opposite wall. “Ow!” Eridan halted, peeking around the door to look at the dazed yellowblood who had seemingly fallen asleep in front of their door and who was currently staring at them like they had never expected Eridan might want to leave the room and react to the blockage keeping them from doing so with force.

"… What the fuck were you doing out there?!" Eridan shrieked, tossing their arms out.

Sollux gaped, stunned by the other’s instant defensive tone. “Why are you trying to push the blame on me?! I was waiting for you to get up and you fling me across the hall!”

"I thought someone was trying to keep me in my block!"

"Why would someone want to keep you in your block?!" Sollux snorted as he climbed to his feet.

The violet-eyed troll huffed and shot a question back. “Why were you in front of my block?!”

calm, calm. Sollux instructed himself, taking a slow breath and reminding himself why he was in front of Eridan’s block in the first place. “I need to show you something.”

"…" Eridan tugged their jacket tighter. "What? Did you do the prinxe thing?"

"Come on ED, you drastically underestimate how much of a goddamn genius I am." He smirked and waved them closer, crouching to grab the yellow husktop and opening it as they rose back up. "See? I used my script for figuring out how to classify someone’s title and modified it for gender identity instead. So if you’re a girl it classifies you as the Princess of Hope, if you’re a boy it calls you the Prince of Hope, and if you aren’t either it goes to Prinxe of Hope."

Eridan nodded, gently nibbling at their bottom lip once more. “So, do I have to… like, get online and select one?”

"Nope." He grinned, tugging them closer by the sleeve and leaning down slightly so they could see the screen better. "See?"

"Sol, I don’t understand a goddamn thing on that page, you’re going to have to translate." Eridan informed him flatly, arching an eyebrow and glancing up at them.

"Right. Well, basically I take the script I used to select titles, modify it for gender, and have it run on you constantly. It updates your title in real time, no need to reload anything. If someone is looking at our title list, it’ll update from Prince to Princess or whatever you need before their eyes." Sollux squeezed their arm, pointing out the harder parts of the script and how he fixed them.

"Wow. Oh my god, Sol, this is…" They spread their hands, struggling for the word. "… Wow. You’ve been working on this since I told you?"

"Yeah. But wait, there’s more." Sollux ignored Eridan’s unamused look at the ad line and clicked over to trollian. "See, when someone talks about you, they’re going to use some pronouns, probably the wrong one, right?"

"I guess." Eridan frowned. They hadn’t really considered that before, and the thought made them a bit sick.

"Now they can’t!" The yellowblood crowed triumphantly. "If someone tries to use he and you want her, it switches it out. No matter how many times they try, they won’t be able to misgender you. I learned about misgendering when I was researching, actually-"

"I’m so happy for you." Eridan said dryly, glancing away and tugging at a strand of hair. They were honestly beyond touched at all the work Sollux had put into this, and didn’t want to do something stupid like hug him.

"Like I was saying, ED, they can’t do it anymore. Again, you don’t have to set this one either. It automatically changes. So, if Aradia wanted to say, "I didn’t see Eridan today, where is he?" and you wanted, uh, gill pronouns, it would switch to, "I didn’t see Eridan today, where is gill?"

"Really?"

"Yeah. I tested it on Karkat before he went to bed, did you want mer pronouns before you went to sleep?" Sollux inquired, trying to crush the bit of anxiety rising up at Eridan’s less than overjoyed reaction. They seemed like they wanted to leave, honestly, and Sollux wanted the conversation to end with Eridan grasping his hands to their chest and thanking him and promising to hang out all the time and not bicker.

It seemed like it would end with a, “Whatever, Sol.” and Eridan hightailing it away and Sollux was less than cool with that.

"Yes, actually, I did." They cracked a smile, relief flooding the lowblood, then a bit of an internal argument about how much Eridan’s opinion should be worth, ending with the internal snarl of, the entiire PROJECT wa2 for eriidan there wa2 no other objectiive but two make eriidan happy why the fuck are we 2tiill pretendiing they aren’t adorable. abort eriidan2 non adorable 2tatu2 and update the cutene22 chart wiith them at the top.

"So it works."

"And nobody can change it back?"

Sollux cackled. “Ehehehe, ED, you think somebody could change something I didn’t want them to? No way, people can’t misgender you. At least. Not in ways I have any say over. And I’ll be sure to check the right pronouns and correct someone if we’re talking IRL, that I can do.”

"… Thank you, Sol." Eridan turned, looking up and taking a deep breath. "This was… really great of you."

"It was nothing-"

"Shut the fuck up, I’m not finished. It was really great of you to put so much effort into this and go above and beyond what I asked for. I like it a lot. Thanks."

"… Welcome. You’re welcome, I mean. Yeah."

Eridan shifted, Sollux’s hand still on their arm. “… So.”

"We could go do something. Like. You could come to my block, I could show you some of the things I changed. You could tell me about you. Like, about being genderfluid. Or anything else, really." fuck. fuck. babbliing. 2top. “I learned a lot when I looked around, but I bet you could tell more. About being genderfluid. I wasn’t- I didn’t look you up. I didn’t research you.”

"I could do that." Eridan agreed. "… Now?"

"Yeah, now is good, or if it isn’t good for you, we could do it later." He suggested, feeling the tips of his ears heat up as he ruffled his hair so it fell over them.

"Now’s good."

"Good."

"… Should we go?"

Sollux nodded, dropping their arm and taking a step away to lead them back, stuck feeling a mix of mortified and elated.

Eridan’s own feelings were a tangle of flattery and nervousness as the two made their way to Sollux’s block.


	4. In which Eridan pours their collapsing and expanding bladder based aquatic vascular system out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eridan confesses reasoning, Sollux gives some comfort. The trolls bond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not the end! I will continue, I don't know where it's going, but it isn't stopping. Contains mentions of eating/cooking.

Five minutes brought them to their current position, nestled on the cheap sofa as Sollux quietly listened, the tips of his tongue between his teeth and Eridan curled up with their feet tucked under them, hands moving as they spoke.

"It’s like, sliding, almost."

"Mhm…"

"You know that gradiant sweater I have?"

"Yeah, the one that has the cool thread stuff that looks like waves near the collar and dips kind of low on your neck and fades from violet to white at mid-thigh?"

"… Yeah, that one."

two much knowledge about clothiing. 2top. who know2 that? nobody. 2top.

Eridan was beginning to feel quite flattered by the attention, and was honestly thrilled to see how much Sollux noticed. They were willing to bet that Sollux didn’t pay that much attention to anyone else. They were the only one. They were special.

They were correct.

"I sort of feel like one side of the gradient sometimes, and sometimes another part, and sometimes a different part. Like, spots all over the gradiant of gender, moving lots."

Sollux nodded slowly, sprawled out on the couch, lanky frame crowding Eridan toward the arm of the couch. “I think I get it. And that’s why you can’t always use just three pronouns, right?”

"Right. It just doesn’t feel right a lot. I want specific ones at specific times, but I can’t really expect everyone to ask me what pronouns all the time."

"Sure you can." Sollux said suddenly, Eridan blinking as he sat up and leaned closer. "I mean, I’d rather you tell me and correct me if I get it wrong than just let it go and not be comforable."

"But what if we’re apart?"

"I can take out my phone and type a pronoun about you and see what it switches to."

"I can’t ask you to take out your phone every time you want to talk about me, Sol-"

"Then I’ll just ask you." He shrugged, adjusting so he was sitting next to them.

"Well…" Eridan said slowly, shifting to face him. "We’d have to be near each other for you to do that."

"Mhm, yeah, we would." Sollux agreed, trying to be smooth as he nodded and leaned his side against the back of the sofa. "We could always just… hang out more."

Eridan nodded their acceptance. “We’re hanging out now.”

"We could hang out tomorrow too." The yellowblood suggested.

Eridan adjusted their scarf, glancing up through their eyelashes. “Anything specific you’d like to do?”

"We could…" Sollux trailed off, frantically searching for date ideas. "I could make you dinner."

"…" Eridan sat forward. "Sol, I have heard horror stories about you cooking." They said honestly, absolutely not willing to sacrifice good food for a date. "Let’s just… hang out? We could watch a movie and snack."

"Alright. Yeah, sounds good, that sounds… good." Sollux looked visibly relieved. "So. Sorry about calling you a boy all those times before I knew…"

Eridan waved a hand and shrugged. “… I don’t want to talk about those. It makes me uncomfortable. Change the subject.” They ordered, crossing their legs.

"It makes you uncomfortable?"

"Well, how would you feel if someone called you a girl?" They sat up, holding up a hand to stop the half-formed word out of Sollux’s mouth. "Actually, worse than that. Because if someone calls you a girl you can just call them an idiot and be done with it and feel fine, but if someone calls me a boy I want to tell them no but I can’t, because what if they laugh at me or hate me?"

"ED." Sollux frowned and took their hand. "If someone is suck an insufferable bulgelicking wad of shit that they do that, they don’t deserve to talk to you, you’re grea-"

"Please fucking recall that I can’t get new friends. We killed them all, Sol, and I do fucking want people to pay attention to me. I want all eleven of you to pay attention to me, actually! If I tell someone and they don’t think my gender identity exists, what am I suposed to do?" Eridan looked hurt, spilling their heart out to the yellowblood. They weren’t sure they even wanted the peron they bickered with to know this, but it was too late to stop now. "I can’t go find a new group, because the only people I know and the only people I can meet are here. I’d love to be able to write off everyone that won’t accept me, but I am emotionally attached to every single one of you and it would hurt if even one of you refused to, and I need emotional support that I can’t get if nobody thinks my gender exists."

There were a few moments of silence, Sollux trying to process and Eridan looking down and regretting every saying anything.

"I’m so sorry, ED."

"Me too, Sol."

Within moments they were wrapped around the other, holding each other and squeezing the other close to themselves.

"Sorry we fight so damn much, Sol."

"We shouldn’t."

"Let’s not."

"We should just… do this more."

"Yeah, I think so…"


	5. In which kissing happens.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids chat. They cuddle. They kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This contains mentions of eating live octopus, so...
> 
> Anyway, please imagine the trolls ended up like the pre-scratch trolls and stayed in the game a long time.

Half an hour found both trolls crammed onto Sollux’s small couch, Sollux laying with his back on the back of the couch and Eridan nestled into his chest.

"Why didn’t you say something?" They asked quietly.

"Like what?"

"Like, hey Eridan we should stop fighting and go out. I don’t know, _something._ ” They shrugged, tilting their head up to glance at the other’s eyes briefly.

"When do you suggest, in between the ‘honey dijon rubbish’ or ‘pissblood’ or ‘landwelling scum’?" Sollux rose an eyebrow.

"… Point taken." They hummed and pressed closer. "But still, you didn’t have to do all that to endear yourself to me."

"It was more trying to make you happy, honestly." He said slowly. "I mean, the cuddles are a definite perk, but the main objective was making this game easier for you."

"I wish we didn’t play it. We’ve been in here for three sweeps, Sol. I liked Alternia. I liked being able to talk to more people about stuff. But now I can’t, because we killed them all."

"Do you feel bad about that?"

"No, it was your fault. Why would I feel bad about something you did?" They blinked and lifted an eyebrow.

"Hey! I did not!" Sollux sat up partially, narrowing his eyes.

"You did so." Eridan crossed their arms and relaxed on the couch. "You made the game."

They quickly wiggled to the side as Sollux flopped back down before resuming the cuddles. “What I meant is, do you feel bad that they all died and some of us lived?”

"I never really bought into survivor’s guilt, myself. I mainly feel bad for myself, because now I only have eleven people to talk to and some of them I don’t even want to be near."

"You’re so selfish, oh my god." Sollux rolled his eyes and squeezed them. "Why are you so cute?"

"I suggest you get used to it." Eridan winked at him and shrugged. "I don’t plan on changing my ways anytime soon, and I doubt you could manage to start disliking me. Since I am _so cute._ ”

"Still want to kill all the landwellers?"

"Then I’d only have one person to talk to, and I don’t think she and I are on the best terms."

"So selfish."

"You don’t mind."

"I kind of want you to consider other people."

"I consider Kar." They pointed out. Sollux nodded, considering. 

"ED, did you ever even want to kill KK?" He finally asked. "I sort of thought you weren’t serious sometimes, or at least only meant some land trolls."

"No. Never Kar." They shook their head. "And to be perfectly honest, not Equ or Tav either."

"Equius? Tavros?" Surprised, Sollux shifted to look them in the eye. "Why not?"

"They don’t litter." Eridan met the look. "They’re both conscious about the effect they had on Alternia and the ocean and Tav and I sometimes talked about littering. He got pretty angry when I told him about animals dying from litter."

"Huh. Guess it makes sense, he likes animals and all. And Equius doesn’t like when people eat meat, so…"

"Equius nearly passed the fuck out when he saw me swallow an octopus live."

"You did what?!" Sollux yelped, gaping at them. "ED, what the fuck?"

"It was pissing me off, it took me forever to finally catch it somewhere I could keep it. So I didn’t give it the mercy of a quick death."

Sollux didn’t stop staring.

"What’s your problem, my stomach acid killed it soon enough."

"ED!"

"What?!"

"You don’t see me trying to swallow something live!"

"Because I am fairly certain you cannot injest food that hasn’t been deep-fried into submission." Eridan informed him flatly.

Sollux huffed. “It tastes good, ED, and that’s all that matters. What probably doesn’t taste good, and sounds murderous as fuck, is swallowing an octopus live.”

Eridan snickered. “Don’t tell me how to live my life, Captor, or I’ll start bossing you around.”

"Oh, will you?"

"Oh yeah."

"What will you do?"

"I’d tell you to do stuff."

"Like you don’t already."

"I’d do it more."

"Do it, then."

"I will."

"Good."

"Good!"

"Then why aren’t you?"

"Kiss me. And hold my hand while you do it. Gently!"

Sollux’s breath caught before he rolled his eyes at all the other’s demands, reaching out and sliding his hand with Eridan’s, staring at the joined hands, lilac-gray against his own yellow-gray skin. He suffered from a moment of speechlessness, absolutely floored at how nice it was to finally do something he had wanted to for so long.

He leaned forward and kissed them, pressing too close and making Eridan lean back slightly, pressed against the back of the couch, their chests pressed awkwardly together as Eridan gently pushed him back, sitting up and wrapping their arms around him.

Sollux was staring at Eridan, eyes wide as saucers when Eridan finally broke the kiss.

"You should boss me around more often."


	6. In which trolls makeout.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eridan and Sollux kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mentions of Vriska and Eridan kissing. Lots of Sollux and Eridan kissing.

Sollux was on cloud two. He was aware the term was cloud nine, but twos were way better than nines, so he highly doubted cloud nine was any better than cloud two. And he highly doubted anything that would take him to cloud nine could be anything better than what he was currently doing on cloud two, which was kissing Eridan Ampora.

There was a brief moment of worry about how he looked when they kissed, which was probably similar to someone who had just experienced a deeply thought-changing and shocking event, before he realized he did not give a fuck and Eridan’s eyes were closed anyway.

Kissing Eridan writing like a code, the basics flowing from his fingers before he started to fine tune it. Eridan squeezed his hand when he spread his fingers out across their lower back. Eridan shifted and tried to press Sollux back a bit when Sollux leaned to close and made him bend uncomfortably, but Eridan also leaned closer when he shifted back hesitantly, seeing if they needed space. Eridan put a hand on his shoulder when they adjusted their feet so they were a little taller and didn’t have to bend their neck as much.

Solution, Sollux sitting flat on his ass, one leg off the couch and leaning against the arm so Eridan could kneel between his legs, hands on his shoulders and Sollux’s own hands resting on their back and hip.

Kissing Eridan was also unlike coding, as coding was instinctive and easy by now. Kissing Eridan was a new experience, an entirely new person to kiss and an entirely new style of kissing.

Eridan started off hesitant, not leaning closer, letting Sollux pick up the slack and give the affection. Just when Sollux was starting to maybe think Eridan was nervous or uncomfortable, they leaned forward and started to contribute more, getting more comfortable with the action once Sollux had started.

Both were both very much enjoying this new style of kissing.

Eridan sat back first, kneeling and staring at him, the faces of both trolls tinted their blood color and Sollux smiling sheepishly. Eridan retured the smile a moment later.

"So that was at least twenty two levels of fucking great." Sollux said abruptly. "I’m two hundred percent for doing that again. Like, within two minutes, or even on a regular basis. This could be a common occurrence? Yeah? I’m so all for that."

"Oh, agreed." Eridan smiled and wiggled back into a cross legged position. "Yeah, that was… really nice."

"Don’t know if I even need to ask this, but do you want to… try it? Together? Red?"

"Yes! Yes. I’d like that." Eridan folded their hands into their lap, nodding and dragging their teeth over their bottom lip before they smiled.

"You have sharp teeth, I honestly expected to taste blood halfway through." 

The seatroll snorted. “Oh? I was worried about being stabbed in the lip with those weapons you call fangs!”

"Come on, ED, I’ve been kissing long enough to know how to keep them out of the way." He shrugged and smirked at them.

Eridan smirked back. “You can’t talk with them, how was I supposed to know you could kiss with them?”

"Should have brought it up before you had me kiss you, then. Or could you even wait?"

"It was an experiment to see if you were any good or not." They stuck their nose in the air. "My experiment was successful."

"Correct me if I’m wrong, which I’m not, but don’t you have to repeat an experiment more than once to know if it’s successful? More than twice?" He shrugged. "Hate to say it, ED, but you haven’t proven anything yet. I’d say another few rounds of kissing before you can say with certainty I know how to kiss."

"If you want to kiss more, you can just ask." Eridan informed him calmly.

"I want to kiss more."

"I do too."

"Sweet."

Eridan held his hand and adjusted their position so they were kneeling again, and could get at the right height to kiss Sollux with minimum acrobatic like bending to overcome the size difference issue. Sollux was really not up for acrobatic like bending. Eridan could probably manage it, but they didn’t particularly want to when Sollux was putting his tongue in their mouth.

The feeling of fangs pressed against the black flesh of their bottom lip was something they could adjust too as well, though it had been weird and gross and one more thing to hate about Vriska when she had planted one on them, it was actually quite nice when Sollux did it.

Sollux had actually figured out how to work around it, and it seemed his tactic was sticking his tongue between the fangs instead of trying to work around them. Eridan could deal with that. Eridan was rather enjoying that, around making sure Sollux didn’t actually get cut on the razor sharp teeth spouting from their mouth, and Sollux didn’t end up like that one troll that had accidentally gotten a wicked slice across their tongue.

Eridan hadn’t been too worked up about it, they hadn’t been enjoying the kiss much anyway and the other troll never did it again.

They really, really hoped Sollux did this again. Many more times. Buffered by lots of cuddling and talking and eating together and romance, god, Eridan really wanted to be romantic with Sollux.

They pulled back to break the kiss and leaned forward, pressing against Sollux’s chest and leaning their cheek against the bony shoulder of the lowblood. “I like you lots.”

"I like you lots too." He murmured back, arms going around the seatroll and squeezing them closer.


	7. In which trolls bicker.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trolls argue and clear a bit of the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about vanishing. This contains some arguing?

"I can hardly believe this…" Eridan sighed happily, perched in Sollux’s lap and playing with his fingers. "Like, I genuinely never thought there was a chance that we would ever get together. I know it’s ridiculous, liking you with how we act, but you like me as well so you’re as ridiculous as I am, if not more."

"Wait, why more?" Sollux protested, letting his new matesprit continue to mess around.

"… Well, I’m a highblood. And you’re a lowblood."

"So why is it more ridiculous that I like you than you liking me?" 

"It’s something high to aspire for. You know why. There’s tons of reasons most highbloods date other highbloods."

"And lowbloods don’t?" Sollux asked skeptically. 

"There’s so many of you that you can’t, really." Eridan said confidently. "It’s like… spillover."

"Highbloods getting in quads with lowbloods are just spillover?" He asked. "I’m spillover? You’re a fish."

"Not you personally." Eridan snapped. "In general."

"Seadwellers in general are fish."

"So? I couldn’t care less what you say about seadwellers, everything you tell me can be applied to Feferi, and I know you like her."

Sollux gaped. “ED, you know I like you too! We just fucking made out! I worked my ass off, I fucking like you! A lot!”

They huffed, fluffing their hair and turning away slightly.

"Eridan." He pulled them back, propping his chin on their head and sighing as they grumbled but didn’t move. "I think it’s pretty fucking obvious that we end up bickering a lot, mostly because you can’t stop trying to get little digs in and I can’t even let the slightest things go."

"Maybe that’s more your fault than it is mine." Eridan cut in snidely.

"Maybe if you’re going to be a dick about me being a lowblood I’m going to be a dick to you about other shit." Sollux snapped.

Eridan quieted down. 

For about two seconds.

"Fuck this, and fuck you, I’m going back to my block." There was a mad tangle of limbs where Eridan tried to dramatically push themselves out of Sollux’s lap while unable to get a good hold, clutching and trying to push while Sollux was holding them.

"ED, no, come on-"

"I should have known this wouldn’t work, nothing involving us ever does."

"Just talk with me for a second!"

"What, so I can get called something aquatic in a tone that sounds highly negative and insulting even though some of them are my pronouns?" 

oh. 2hiit.

Sollux hadn’t thought about that.

"Oh." He said quietly. "Shit, ED, I didn’t even think about… I didn’t mean to imply your pronouns were an insult, or use them that way?"

"You’re an asshole."

yeah.

"I’ll stop."

"You better."

"I will."

They subtly shifted back, settling against him and letting him continue to hold them, comforted in the reassurance that he would stop.

Sollux took their hands gently. “I’m sorry.” He didn’t say it to Eridan… ever, really, but they deserved an apology.

"Don’t do it again."

"I won’t." He promised quietly, a lot less keen to argue and fight after that. Bickering was easy when Eridan shrieked and huffed. It got a lot harder when they tried to turn and leave because they were genuinely upset.

Eridan didn’t bother to respond for a while, a little stunned at the sudden switch from angry and snapping to quiet and contrite. As far as they could remember, anything that revealed any true feelings would be exploited and pushed to the limit, but now Sollux seemed to be less smug and more sorry.

But with this new, nicer attitude, they supposed Sollux deserved something too. 

"Sorry I called you spillover."

A snort came from behind them, startling the violetblood. “Pfft. Oh shit, ED, I’m supposed to be feeling bad, but that is probably the last thing I ever expected to hear in my entire life. Ehehehe!” 

Soon enough Eridan was giggling as well, the trolls clinging to each other in a chair and laughing.

"Spillover!"

"Of all the fuckin’ things to call someone!"

"God!"


End file.
